Stephen Gethins
North East Fife
Stephen Gethins is MP for North-East Fife and is the SNP’s Westminster Group Spokesperson on International Affairs and Europe, having served as SNP Europe Spokesperson between May 2015 and May 2017 during which time he was the party’s first member on the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.
Stephen has worked across the political and NGO sectors. He holds a Law Degree from the University of Dundee where he focused on Public International Law and also studied at the University of Antwerp. He holds a Research Masters from the University of Kent on the role that devolved assemblies have to play in the resolution and prevention of inter-ethnic conflict.
Prior to politics, Stephen enjoyed a career in the political and international NGO sector. He has worked in peace-building, arms control and democratisation in the Caucasus and Balkans. He worked with the NGO Links, based in Tbilisi, with a focus on the conflicts surrounding the breakaway entities in the South Caucasus such as South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh. He worked for Saferworld on arms control and peace-building in the former Soviet Union and Balkans. He has also been involved in a range of democratisation projects across the former Soviet Union and Western Balkans.
Stephen was until recently a Special Adviser to Scotland’s First Minister, advising on European and International Affairs as well as Rural Affairs, Energy and Climate Change. He was also a Political Advisor with the Committee of the Regions in the European Union, a position which saw him working with local authorities from across Europe. He also worked at Scotland Europa, helping Scottish organisations gain influence and funding in the EU.
In 2011, as part of a select number of other European participants, Stephen was involved in the US Government’s International Visitor Leadership Programme which analysed ‘US Foreign Policy Challenges’.